


Painting Failed Successfully

by Medicore



Series: Hamliza Oneshots [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Dating, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Love, Painting, Romance, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:22:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28778985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medicore/pseuds/Medicore
Summary: Alexander sucks at painting.
Relationships: Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler
Series: Hamliza Oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108793
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Painting Failed Successfully

Alexander Hamilton was a terrible painter. 

Whenever he tried to paint, it looked like it had been done by a three-year-old. The colors would mix together incorrectly, creating a horrible color that shouldn’t exist on paper. He ruined plenty of brushes with his terrible technique and has pretty much given up at this point, knowing that him painting was hopeless.

However, Elizabeth Schuyler was an incredible painter. 

Her paintings were beautiful and whimsical, just like she was. She was hired to paint lovely murals for buildings and sold her work on canvases quite frequently, to the point where she was considering it becoming a full-time job. Her Instagram followers, along with her friends, all loved her work and supported it greatly.

Today was August 9. Today was Eliza’s birthday, and Alexander didn’t have anything made yet for her. He had wanted to do something special for her but didn’t plan for it until it was too late. That was what he got for busying himself in work. Alexander had only been dating for about three years now, but he loved her deeply and wanted to do something big for her, something he hadn’t done before. But whatever new idea he needed to come up with and complete in a couple hours needed to be doing great. 

Alexander sat in Eliza’s office where she painted, thinking of ideas of what he could do. He had written a poem and a letter the years before, so he didn’t want to do that again, not so soon. So what could he do? He wanted to do something great.  
Alexander’s phone vibrated for a moment. A notification for something. He checked his phone, seeing that Eliza had posted something new on her Instagram, so he went to that post. It was a large canvas, with the painted image of a glowing moon above the water with a frog resting upon a lily pad as the main focus. The caption was talking about a dream that Eliza had had when she was younger, a dream about the place she had painted. Alexander scrolled through the lengthy caption until it got to the last sentence, the one that seemed to be at the end of quite a few of her posts. “Try painting something today. It doesn’t matter if you think your painting skills are terrible to you, just try it; you’ll never know where trying can take you.”

Alexander liked the post and commented on it as usual, mind forming with new ideas. Maybe he was going to follow that advice of painting something. Alexander stared at the easel that was left out with a tiny canvas on it. A perfect-sized canvas for a beginner wanting to try and paint something good. Alexander went over to it and got out the paint and brushes, careful to pick out the ones Eliza didn’t care much about; which were the really old ones. He knew that starting out with bad items wouldn’t help his work look better, but Alexander couldn’t even think about touching– and ruining– Eliza’s good equipment.

Alexander scrolled through his phone camera until he found the perfect picture of Eliza that he could paint. He smiled at the picture, in awe of how beautiful his girlfriend was. He pulled out a pencil and used the photo to lightly sketch out all of her features onto the tiny canvas, like he had seen her do whenever she drew people.

Once done, he took out the paint and brush, getting to work. He winced at the mess he could tell he was already starting to make, but kept pushing through as he always did, hoping to be able to fix it during the second coat, as Eliza called it. He was trying to go slow and be careful, for this was a gift for her, but he just couldn’t, as if it wasn’t in his nature. And it wasn’t for most things, including this. 

Alexander let out a loud groan as he lowered the paintbrush, taking in the work he had just done. It was terrible. A good painting couldn't compare to Eliza’s beauty, so there was no chance that this hideous one he had made could be given to her as a birthday gift.

The door to the apartment opened up and Alexander heard the footsteps of someone entering the place as they closed the door behind them. Eliza was home, earlier than expected. He listened to her hum a song to herself and he left her art room to go see her.

“Hey, Betsey,” He greeted, giving her a hug and a kiss. Eliza returned it and was about to say something when Alex held a finger up to her lip, shushing her.

“I wanted to make something special for you, but I failed at it. I'm sorry, Betsey.” Alexander looked down, embarrassed. Him, Alexander Hamilton, had just admitted to failing.

“Aw, dear, it’s okay! What did you try and make?” Eliza asked him as she took off her light blue crocs. They had been a joke gift from their friend John last year, but Eliza wore them with loving pride. Alexander loved that thing about her, the way she appreciated everything their friends did for her, silly or not. 

“A painting.” Alexander waited to see Eliza’s face twist into a grimace, as everyone else’s did whenever he mentioned that he tried to paint. But it didn’t. In fact, her features seemed to become even softer as a bright smile shone across her face. “You made me a painting? May I see it, please?”  
“Um… yeah, It’s in your art room. I used your old brushes and paint for it; I hope you don't mind.” Alexander took his girlfriend’s hand and led her into her own art room, where the tiny canvas on the easel stood in the center. Alexander stood back as Eliza picked up the canvas, staring at the mess of paint that was supposed to be a portrait of her.

“You made this for me?” Eliza asked, brushing a thumb against the slightly damp canvas paper and turning to her boyfriend. Alexander nodded and Eliza let out a giggle. “This is so sweet of you, thank you so much! I love it, my dear! I have to keep this somewhere safe.”

Alexander blushed. “You… like it? I thought it was commonplace to not like my painting. I mean, people tease me about it for a reason.” 

Eliza cupped his face and told him, “Well, I love my birthday present and I love you. So there.” She kissed them and then asked, “So, where should I hang the painting?”


End file.
